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At least 25 percent of female veterans were sexually abused in childhood, making it more difficult to reenter civilian life. Volunteers of America runs a holistic housing program for homeless veterans in the U.S.

The H.I.V. infection rate in San Francisco dropped drastically after the city increased testing and created programs like Rapid, which immediately offer public health insurance, antiretroviral drugs, and personal counselors for people with AIDS.

For decades, AIDS has taken the lives of millions of people and infected millions more worldwide. The key to reducing the effect of AIDS, and even potentially curing it, involves treating patients as early as possible after being diagnosed with HIV, before the disease damages organs. San Francisco General Hospital developed the RAPID program for this purpose, with the goal of “Getting to Zero” the number of new infections and deaths.

A prosthetist from Texas visiting Jaipur Limb workshops in Honduras saw problems with their low-cost prosthetics - the issue wasn't the design of the leg, but the technicians at the Honduras workshops were people completely new to prosthetics who were given just eight weeks of training. Thanks to his research, Jaipur established a research and development unit to improve the limb.

In Honduras, tens of thousands of people have hearing disabilities. The National Autonomous University of Honduras has developed software that converts spoken language into an avatar on the computer who signs for the hearing impaired. Teachers in classrooms can teach hearing impaired students with this new software.

Native American student graduation rates are much lower than that of any other demographic. The Red Cloud school teaches students on a reservation in South Dakota about the Lakota history to empower the kids and encourage resilience.

The Aboriginal community in Australia is 31 times more likely than other Australians to die of alcohol-related causes. Could a "tough love" approach stressing accountability and making rehab mandatory work? Or is further restricting access to alcohol for everyone a better approach?

Playgrounds that are accessible for children with special needs can be difficult to find. NPR launched a national crowd-sourced guide called Playgrounds for Everyone, which invited individuals to add playgrounds that are accessible. After the launch, nearly 400 playgrounds have been added to the already 1200 playgrounds on the map that will help families find public places for their children to play.

Institutionalizing the mentally ill can exacerbate their symptoms, while dehumanizing them and taking away opportunities for agency. For centuries, the town of Geel in Belgium has a government-funded program that places “boarders” in residential homes where they receive care like a family member. The solution to the problem is to not treat the mentally ill as a social problem, but rather as a social norm.

"A social secretary for people who have been deprived of the forms of communication that are now ubiquitous almost everywhere except for prisons," Renea Royster is part of a network of organizations (including Pigeonly, Infolincs, Inmatefone, and Phone Donkey) helping prisoners keep in touch with people on the outside.